Analysis of Value Added Tax Productivity in Kenya

Abstract

One of the critical components of Sustainable Development Goals is to strengthen domestic resource mobilization. The target is to have domestic resources contributing at least 75 percent to 90 percent of the financing required to achieve Agenda 2063 (AU, 2015). In an effort to enhance domestic resource mobilization in Kenya, great emphasis has been placed on Value Added Tax whereby the tax authority endeavors to enhance the contribution of VAT collections to GDP from a mean of 6 per cent to 9 percent of GDP. The study sought to estimate the productivity of VAT over the period 1973-2016 using data collected from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Kenya Revenue Authority’s database. OLS method was adopted to estimate buoyancy of VAT while divisia index approach was adopted to estimate elasticity of VAT. The study found that, the VAT system was buoyant with a value greater than one while the elasticity was 0.79 which was less than one implying VAT system was inelastic. The study concluded that the tax reforms adopted during the study period had impacted positively on VAT performance hence the buoyancy value greater than one. Therefore, to mobilize more revenue from VAT, reforms focusing on enhancing VAT compliance and expanding tax base should be emphasised.